NEWS

(l.-r.) John Engalitcheff, The Honorable Walter Judd, Ambassador Lev Dobriansky, David Jones and John Templeton.

The Fund for American Studies lost one of its earliest friends and supporters. Ambassador Lev Dobriansky passed away on Jan. 30, 2008.

Dobriansky played a key role in The Fund’s early years, establishing the organization’s academic partnership with Georgetown University and serving as the academic director for summer programs from 1970-1982.

In recognition of Dobriansky’s many contributions to TFAS and his country, TFAS established the Lev Dobriansky Lecture on Political Economy in 1996. Among the distinguished speakers who have delivered the annual lecture are Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan, the late Mancur Olson, Economist Walter Williams and former Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert McTeer.

Dobriansky was born in New York on Nov. 9, 1918. He lived a full and active life, serving on the faculty of Georgetown University from 1948 until he was nominated by President Reagan to serve as U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas in 1982. He was a faculty member at the National War College from 1957-1958 and served as a consultant with the U.S. Department of State, the International Communication Agency and the U.S. House of Representatives. From 1974-1975, he was a member of the National Commission for the Observance of World Population Year.

In 1959, Dobriansky wrote the first Captive Nations Week proclamation, a document that has since been issued by every president since Dwight Eisenhower.

On July 20, 2005 Dobriansky was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Captive Nations Committee and the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America for “his inspiring leadership and unwavering commitment to the Liberation of all Captive Nations and the National Independence of all Peoples.”

Dobriansky was also the inspiration for the Victims of Communism Memorial that was erected near the U.S. Capitol in 2007. He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Julia Kusy Dobriansky, and two daughters, Larisa Dobriansky (E 71) and Paula Dobriansky, the Undersecretary of State of Democracy and Global Affairs and a TFAS Trustee Emeritus.